Southwest introduced some main modifications to its Speedy Rewards loyalty program, most notably making it tougher to earn a Southwest Companion Move.
Starting Jan. 1, 2023, you’ll must earn 135,000 qualifying factors in a calendar yr with a view to get your palms on a Companion Move. Beforehand, you’d’ve wanted 125,000 factors to qualify.
The Southwest Companion Move is a much-coveted perk amongst journey aficionados, because it’s mainly a buy-one-get-one deal in your Southwest flight. Whenever you purchase a flight (or redeem factors for a free flight), you possibly can designate a companion to fly with you for under the price of taxes and costs, which begin at $5.60 one-way.
How one can earn 135,000 factors for the Southwest Companion Move
Earn factors by flying
Southwest’s lowest fare class, Wanna Get Away, offers you 6 Speedy Rewards factors for each $1 spent in base airfare, which means you’d must spend $22,500 yearly to earn the Companion Move if acquired solely by way of flying by way of a budget fares. In the event you fly Enterprise Choose, which earns 12 factors per greenback spent, you’d must spend $11,250 yearly.
Earn factors by spending on a Southwest bank card
Paying for Southwest flights isn’t the one method to earn Southwest factors. Factors can be earned by spending on Southwest bank cards.
Making use of for a brand new Southwest bank card may also offer you an enormous swath of factors in a single go, which may additionally rely towards the requirement to earn a Companion Move. Listed below are among the present Southwest bank card sign-up bonus provides for shoppers:
And whereas this information means it’s harder to get a Companion Move, there’s some silver lining for individuals who maintain a Southwest bank card. The corporate at present additionally introduced a brand new profit: Speedy Rewards bank card members will obtain a lift of 10,000 Companion Move-qualifying factors yearly, which can get deposited into your account on the primary enterprise day of every calendar yr or inside 30 days of opening the cardboard.
The factors from the Companion Move increase cannot be redeemed for flights, however will provide you with a ten,000 level head begin in direction of incomes the perk.
And holding a number of bank cards received’t offer you an even bigger head begin. Just one increase of 10,000 Companion Move qualifying factors may be earned every calendar yr by every Speedy Rewards account, regardless of what number of Speedy Rewards bank cards are tied to that Speedy Rewards account.
Different modifications coming to the Speedy Rewards loyalty program
Together with the elevated Companion Move necessities, Southwest introduced just a few different modifications.
Normally, Companion Move holders will now have the ability to board along with their Companions. There are just a few exceptions, resembling when  the Companion Move holder bought a Enterprise Choose fare, bought Upgraded Boarding or added the Companion after they’d been assigned a boarding place. However this information makes it extra probably that you simply and your buddy will have the ability to sit collectively, regardless of Southwest’s unconventional boarding system.
Southwest additionally applied a brand new no-show coverage for Speedy Rewards bookings. In the event you’ve booked a Wanna Get Away or Wanna Get Away Plus fare with Speedy Rewards factors, it’s essential to cancel the reservation no less than 10 minutes earlier than the flight’s authentic scheduled departure time in case your plans change and also you need your factors again — in any other case you’ll forfeit them. That coverage kicks in subsequent summer season.
Southwest is subsequent in line for airline pattern
The information of Southwest making it more durable to earn a Companion Move follows a pattern of different journey loyalty applications rising necessities for particular advantages. Earlier this month, Delta upped how a lot spending you could do to qualify for Medallion elite standing — the primary enhance the corporate had made since 2015.
And whereas this won’t precisely enable you really feel any higher, you won’t truly fly any greater than traditional simply to hit the brand new factors requirement given the rising price of flights. The common U.S. airfares in September 2022 have been 43% larger than they have been in September 2021.
How one can maximize your rewards
You need a journey bank card that prioritizes what’s vital to you. Listed below are our picks for the greatest journey bank cards of 2022, together with these greatest for: